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Thursday, January 05, 2012

Choice Cuts: Franklin Avenue's Favorite Tracks of 2011, Part 2

In no particular order, I've selected the favorite tracks from this year's monthly playlists for our tenth annual Choice Cuts end-of-year mix. I'm revealing them throughout the week. The next five:

6. "Sweet Louise" -- Belle Brigade
L.A.-based siblings Barbara Gruska and Ethan Gruska come from music royalty: Their grandfather is Oscar-winning composer John Williams. (Their father is a film and TV composer as well.) The Belle Brigade's harmonies were one of the highlights of KCRW's recent Are Friends Eclectic? concert at the Orpheum.

7. "Paradise" -- Coldplay
Blogger Kid and Blogger Toddler can't get enough of "Paradise." They sing the song's chorus constantly. They re-enact the Coldplay video (watch above). They demand it in the car. Thankfully it's a good song.

8. "Eyes" -- Peter Bjorn and John
Damn you, "2 Broke Girls." I would have included Peter, Bjorn and John's "Second Chance" on this list, as potentially my favorite track on the group's recent album "Gimme Some." But then "2 Broke Girls" selected "Second Chance" its theme song... and hearing it so often, and connected to a sitcom, took away quite a bit of the song's allure in my mind. Thankfully Peter Bjorn and John's new CD contains several tracks worthy of our mix -- "Breaker, Breaker" and "May Seem Macabre" were two more contenders, before I settled on "Eyes."

9. "New Leaf" -- Alameda
What seems to be an unassuming tune by Portland trio Alameda winds up exuding power thanks to its use of drums. (Is that a tympani?)

10. "King Of The Beach" -- Wavves
Pitchfork named Wavves' "King of the Beach" album, which includes this title track, as number 50 on its list "The Top 50 Albums of 2010." I didn't discover it until 2011, but was immediately enchanted by the song's surf/low-fi/noise aesthetic.